Addressable TV promises to boost the value of commercial time for broadcasters as they offer advertisers improved audience targeting. TV maker Vizio has equipped its smart TVs with advanced technology that gives networks a way to transform their linear ad inventory into an addressable format as part of its Project OAR (Open Addressable Ready).
The company two years ago formed the consortium to develop technical standards for addressable TV among the biggest media companies in the U.S. Those efforts are coming to fruition, with Vizio this year presenting at the Newfronts for the first time.
“Our partners are now moving into production. We are running campaigns,” Adam Gaynor, vice president of network partnerships at Vizio, said in this interview with Beet.TV. “At the same time, we’re starting to build our own Vizio addressable business, and sourcing new types of inventory — both national and local.”
‘Some Further Ahead Than Others’
Gaynor, who joined Vizio last August, has been immersed in the effort to develop addressable advertising for most of his career in TV and digital advertising sales. His responsibilities include developing Project OAR, whose members include Fox, ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal, E.W. Scripps and AMC Networks.
“What I noticed when I came in nine months ago was that some of our network partners were further ahead than others — and those are the ones that really understood the technology that was in place, and were able to choose which technology to put in place,” Gaynor said.
At Vizio, his goals have been to help existing Project OAR members, attract new members and develop new sources of inventory for Vizio’s addressable TV business. In doing that, Vizio started working with ad-tech company Beachfront.
“Beachfront is now contributing to our own tech-stack solution,” Gaynor said. “They’re great partners who have visibility into the digital and linear world.”
11 Million Vizio TVs
Project OAR-enable software is now on more than 11 million Vizio TVs, giving advertisers a way to being running addressable campaigns.
“We now have a number of members that are in production and are running addressable ads,” Gaynor said. “There are a handful that are just on the cusp of going into production. In the next couple of weeks, we’ll see them move into production.”
Spanish-language broadcaster Univision in February joined Project OAR, which also collaborating with ad-tech vendors.
“Addressable TV today acts as the bridge between linear and streaming,” Gaynor said. “When I think about it from the buy-side, when I think about it from the brand side, we now have a real opportunity to help brands as they find their audiences in both the connected TV world and the linear world, to connect them by using addressable TV.”
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